BENGALURU: Less than 45% of the people living in Bengaluru are eligible to vote, reflecting a poor population-to-voter ratio.
The population-to-voter ratio across the state is 66.11%.
Data from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, released on Tuesday, showed the total projected population in Karnataka is 6,87,59,538 people while the number of electors are 4,54,55,689 voters (excluding the service voters).
The data also showed Bengaluru houses a projected population of 1,07,08,716 citizens of which the number of electors in the final electors are 59,08,151 (excluding service voters), making it 44.82% voters.
Bengaluru’s four districts -- Bangalore Urban, BBMP North, BBMP South and BBMP Central -- contribute to 15.57% of the state’s population and 12.99% of the state’s voting population.
CEO Karnataka, V Anbukkumar, said that many people staying in the state, particularly in Bengaluru, are not voters. They are migrating population, coming in from other states for various purposes. “Every resident in Bengaluru is not a voter,” he said.
Another EC official, not wanting to be named, said, “There are many who are staying here. Their names have been deleted from the rolls for not submitting documents for inclusion. This is because they had more than one voter ID including that from other states.”
Data from the CEO office showed that the lowest ratio of electors to population was recorded in BBMP South district--45.81%, where the projected population is 24,30,995 and the voters are 11,13,554.
In Bangalore Urban district, the projected population is 37,07,941 while the number of voters is 24,01,939 -- 64.78%. BBMP North has a projected population of 24,81,212 with 13,25,284 electors (53.41%) and BBMP Central has a projected population of 20,88,568 with 10,67,374 electors (51.11%).
The highest ratio of electors to population has been reported in Udupi--76.38%. The projected population is 13,27,836 of which 10,14,143 are electors, followed by Dakshin Kannada (71.22%). The projected population being 23,56,719 and electors being 16,78,448.
Explaining the deletion of 1,88,324 electors during the hearing process, Anbukkumar said 1,091 deaths, 762 duplication, 1,24,327 permanently shifted, 184 absentee and 61,960 others (including Form 7s generated for ineligible cases) were recorded.
On the addition of 10,08,038 voters, he said, 8,77,104 Form 6s and 2,312 Form 6As for inclusion and 1,28,622 Form 8s for shifting were received. Also 8,96,519 forms for correction were received. He added that 61,867 were listed under ineligible category.
During the time slot for hearing notices, election officials received 26,23,875 forms for inclusion, deletion and correction. Of them, 3.03 lakh were rejected and 2.55 lakh are pending for processing. They will be reflected in subsequent supplementary rolls. On the difference in voter ratio to the projected population, the CEO said there are many citizens in the state, who are not voters.
During SIR, many foreign nationals were also identified and removed from the rolls. This number is less than 1,000. As compared to the draft rolls, which were published on August 24, the number of voters in the final list has increased by 8,19,714.
On appeals made before district election officers, after the ERO hearing, Anbukkumar said that 361 first appeals were recorded, of which nine have been disposed of and 352 are pending. No appeals have been made before the CEO so far, he added.